1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to energy utilization reduction devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A large amount of energy is wasted in hotels, public buildings, offices, schools, laboratories and so forth by users (e.g. hotel guests) leaving lights and/or power-consuming electrical appliances switched on when leaving their rooms and by leaving their air conditioners (i.e. heating and/or cooling appliances) set at an unnecessarily high cooling or heating level when leaving their rooms. It has been proposed that power be conserved in a hotel by on/off switching of room heating appliances from a central location, namely the reception desk. Such a system relies upon the guest notifying reception when he leaves his room. Moreover, it only enables on/off control of heating, which is unsatisfactory in cold climates in that unheated rooms can quickly become excessively cold, and inapplicable in warm climates where cooling rather than heating is needed. Moreover, such system does not enable the conservation of power by ensuring that lights and power-consuming appliances (e.g. television receivers) are switched off whenever a guest leaves his room.
There therefore exists a need for an electrical energy conservation arrangement which simply and reliably ensures that when a person leaves a hotel room, or other room that will normally be locked when vacated, the electrical power consuming equipment within that room will be put into a minimal power consumption mode.